Re: Which form is correct?

[Dan Dusing <EENG01 -at- EMAIL -dot- MOT -dot- COM>]

In article <30vgbl$5u7 -at- search01 -dot- news -dot- aol -dot- com>, jbergen -at- aol -dot- com (JBergen) wrote:

> I have a question of style. I've looked at the Chicago Manual of Style,
> Elements of Style (Strunk& White), Elements of Grammar (Shertzer), and
> numerous technical writing textbooks, but none answer this burning
> question:

> lower-right corner
>  or
> lower right corner

> Usually the style guides recommend hyphenating if the first adjective
> modifies the second adjective, but in this case I could make the case that
> both "lower" and "right" modify "corner" --- I may just reword completely
> to avoid the problem, but I'd like to know what other technical writers
> would use.

> Thanks.

> Jane Bergen

Jane:

I noticed nobody 3jumped2 on this one and I just read it myself.

Briefly, IMHO, and according to my references and teaching, you should
hyphenate. Reason: the two words 3lower2 and 3right2 are being used
as a single modifier. The same holds for such an example as
left-handed threads. However, the hyphen is generally used so as
not to cause the reader confusion. In this case, without the hyphen,
I don9t think the reader will be confused or, for that matter, even
cares or knows. We do, of course. But then we are supposed to be the
experts.

Regards,
Dan

--
Dusing-EENG01 Dan -at- email -dot- mot -dot- com
Motorola Inc.